Help of Science in Setting Civilizations

Science is valued by society because the appliance of the knowledge domain helps to satisfy many basic human needs and improve living standards. Finding a cure for cancer and a clean sort of energy are just two topical examples. Similarly, science is usually justified to the general public as driving the economic process, which is seen as a return-on-investment for public funding. During the past few decades, however, another goal of science has emerged: to seek out how to rationally use natural resources to ensure their continuity and therefore the continuity of humanity itself; an endeavor that's currently mentioned as “sustainability”. Scientists often justify their work using these and similar arguments—currently linked to non-public health and longer life expectancies, technological advancement, economic profits, and/or sustainability—to secure funding and gain social acceptance. This means that the majority of the tools, technologies, and medicines we use today are products or by-products of research, from pens to rockets and from aspirin to organ transplantation. This progressive application of the knowledge domain is captured in Isaac Asimov’s book, Chronology of Science and Discovery, which beautifully describes how science has shaped the planet, from the invention of fireside until the 20th century. However, there's another application of science that has been largely ignored, but that has enormous potential to deal with the challenges facing humanity within present-day education. It's time to significantly consider how science and research can contribute to education in the least levels of society; not just to interact with more people in research and teach them about the knowledge domain, but crucially to supply them with a basic understanding of how science has shaped the planet and human civilization. Education could become the foremost important application of science within the next decades.

By: Jyoti Nayak

Birla School, Pilani